Top Innovations In Heating And Cooling

19 January 2015

Are you looking into building or remodeling a home? Are you trying to decide on heating and cooling systems for your home? Energy-efficient residential climate control has come a long way in recent decades. If you're looking to save money on your heating and cooling costs, here are a few ideas to consider:

Smart thermostat: Unlike slightly older programmable thermostats, an innovative smart thermostat will automatically learn your preferences and adjust usage accordingly. It will also vary usage according to the exterior temperature and humidity so that your comfort remains the same, no matter what temperature it is outside. Also, if you are coming home early or staying out late, you can access an app on your smartphone to manually tell your heating and cooling system to turn on early or to wait and turn on later in the evening.

Geothermal systems: Depending on where you live, geothermal heating and cooling can carry a hefty initial price tag. However, such a system can pay for itself relatively quickly. Because there are no highly pressurized and potentially toxic coolants and no heating elements to wear out, you'll usually have far fewer potential breakdowns and maintenance calls. In addition, the heating and cooling comes directly from the earth itself so that your only operating costs are for a circulating pump.

Natural refrigerants: If you live in an area where a geothermal solution won't work or is simply too expensive, you should consider a system with natural refrigerants. Traditional refrigerants are harmful to the environment and potentially damaging to the ozone layer. However, some of the latest heating and cooling systems use natural ammonia or CO2 as refrigerants. In case of a leak, the potential for environmental harm is greatly reduced. For a more immediate side effect, some heat pump systems are able to produce both heating and cooling simultaneously, allowing you to have different temperatures in different rooms.

Evaporative cooling: Traditional evaporative coolers work well in some climates, but work poorly in extreme heat or humidity. Recent innovations, however, have created systems that can work in more situations. These systems split the outgoing air into two streams: one gets dried by a desiccant, the other has humidity added. When the air streams are recombined, the resulting single stream is much cooler and drier than it would be in a traditional system. If you live in an area of the country where it is both hot and humid, like Florida, these new systems may be perfect for you.

About Me

My parents were barely "making ends meet" when I was a child, so we lived in a small home that they rarely upgraded. However, they were devoted parents and I cherish every memory made in that house. They were adamant that I go to college, and after I graduated, I was very lucky to land a good job quickly. After I bought my home, I had a few renovations performed to it to make it perfect for me. When the job was done I decided to pay it back to my parents for all they did for me as a child and have their kitchen remodeled. Once I can afford it, I want to help make a few more changes to their home. I have been researching and learning so much about home remodeling, I decided to start a blog to share my remodeling tips and experiences on!